Cheap PVE Deck Ideas

In a thread in the General forum, a newer player was expressing concern about deck ideas always including cards that cost much more than someone just trying out Hex would want to invest. I thought it would be fun to try the campaign out using "cheap" decks, and share the experience so that others could see some deck builds that wouldn't require a massive (or any) investment in the game.

I will start with the Shin'hare Cleric. I always think of Clerics being "easy mode" for the campaign because of all the blessings and life gain they will get along the way. The Shin'hare cleric is no different, and benefits from more starting health along with the random chance to create Battle Hoppers. My approach for Shin'hare has been to focus on either Wild or Blood, so this first deck will be strictly mono-Wild. I tried to include as many clerics as possible so as to take advantage of the lifedrain talent. Also, I'm a firm believer in not mixing Underworld and Ardent troops; if intermingling of the factions doesn't concern you, then you are sure to find some other alternatives that I would not consider. Play what is fun for you!

Having said all that, here is my Level 2 through 3 Shin'hare Cleric deck, with a price tag under 450p (and most of the cards should be starter cards that you have already, so it should be pretty cheap to pick up the missing pieces):

This easily got me from the start all the way to Level 4 (which you should hit just after the Dream dungeon). Some tips:

1. Don't be afraid to use the Wild Growths early and often. Treat them like removal, not finishers (well, unless you can actually finish with them of course). If you can clear the opponent's board, or even trade favorably, do it.
2. If you get Dream Stag out, protect him at all costs. Make sure to play shards prior to playing troops if Stag is on the board so as to get that boost from its equipment. We'll be adding a second Stag once we hit level 4. It is an awesome troop in mono-Wild.
3. In the Dream dungeon, I went White - Blue - Black - Red - Green. The White battle can get out of hand if you do it later in the sequence and give the turtle more starting health, so get it out of the way. The Blue fliers can also be problematic, so it is a good second choice. The other three aren't as critical orderwise, although I find the Dream Bear is usually slow to start, so you can take that time to build up your board and chip away at his health.
4. Feel free to swap the Guru out for something else (any suggestions?). I found him to be almost useless.
5. Avoid the "optional" quests for now. Sea Hag and Piranhas can wait, as will the Bubblebee encounter. We'll come back to those later.

Hello, I am the player that expressed concerns about slow Shin'hare Cleric deck that was slow and ineffective. Well, my version was slow and ineffective.
This version is awesome! And other then one equipment that costs 80+ platinum I really really love this deck and how cheap but effective it is. The only problem for me in Dream dungeon came from Wild encounter but I think it was just a bad draw. Dream Stag is pure gold in this deck!
Super cheap, relatively fast, awesomely fun and consistent deck.
Thank you really much for this and I really hope to see your later level builds when you get to it.

PS As a new and F2P player this is an awesome deck to get to appropriate level (level 8 i think?) and use the Cleric deck user Dinotropia posted on main site. Apparently that deck can farm Devonshire dungeon easily and the deck is also relatively cheap for new players.

Again as a new player I would really appreciate those kinds of budget decks. Just as a sidenote, this cheap deck allowed me to have fun and enjoy *playing* the content and as a result I decided to invest money into this game.
Hex community is mostly as good as advertised and people like you (and f.e. nicosharp also with his budget decks) are awesome for this game because you help people enjoy, play and progress and as a result those new people stay around, invest money and build up this nice community. The fact I only mentioned 2 people is by no means a complete list, just something I came across while lurking around the forums to see what I can do and how.

Thanks again

EDIT: What do you think about adding Pheromones for the situation where the board gets cluttered with creatures on both sides and you need that extra little push to finish the oponent? I was checking the wild cards and cheap ways to give me an edge. That card seems really good in this kind of "swarm" deck of a lot of little creatures and some big threats. Just a suggestion

That is true but some of those budged decks aren't really budget (at least now in my opinion). Some may have been budget decks at the time of creation but people saw newbies are building those decks and then raised the prices on AH and now, as I said, those decks aren't budget any more. :/

Still, there is a lot of affordable decks if you are willing to look around. And, imho, the point of budget deck is to give the player a sense of what this game offers and then it draws you in and you start investing money to support the company and have fun with different decks.

With starter decks and my limited game knowledge I wasn't having fun and I didn't want to come back to the game. That is all different now

Here's my level 4 through 6 deck, with one late change I made thanks to Hrinkell. The deck weighs in just under 500p. I've completed all the content EXCEPT the Killipede nodes, the Pirahnas, and the final dungeon (Devonshire). Note that I did Fort Romor twice in order to hit level 7 before attempting the remaining content.

Unfortunately I lost my notes that I made while running through the content. I know I saved the more difficult content for when I hit level 6 - that being the Gnome quest and the Sea Hag. For the Sea Hag, I added in 3x Manti Elder Druid and 3x Vine Lash, removing the Cottontail Ronin and the Rune Ear Elites to make room. This still took a few attempts, but I was able to defeat the Hag and rescue the princess.

The Gnome quest I did with the above deck, took all 60 gnomes and went down the west route (2 battles). The first node was pretty easy, the second took a few tries.

Everything else was pretty straightforward; the battle with the guards at the barricade node took two tries, but cleric usually makes it pretty easy with all the life gain. Just remember to use Wild Growth as pump for removal. And the Chained Goliath... I tried to time having a few troops on board and swinging in the turn before he flipped. That brought him below 20 and I had a handful of stuff to play after he did the board wipe.

So now you should be level 7... and we can put more uncommons in the deck. Not exactly exciting, but we'll see what we can do.

If there are any questions on approach to encounters, please ask and I'll remember as best I can, or I can go back and replay stuff to figure out what I did.